Radio, Radio

British English language and spelling. In some stories the legal process will be different to what readers from the USA are used to, over here we have laws that apply nationally, not state by state. Where possible I try to research facts in the hope I can be accurate in what I write.

I write for my enjoyment, and hopefully that of others. I welcome feedback and constructive criticism; hateful or pointless comments will be deleted.

To those of you who favourite my stories or follow me, thank you, it means a lot.

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A short tale of a cheating wife.

"Thank you all for listening to this week's Friday rock show. Tonight I will leave you with two southern rock tracks, by Blackberry Smoke. The first is Let Me Help You Find the Door, I'll play that for my wife Louise. The second track is Payback's A Bitch; I'll play that for Barry Haines. Goodnight all, have a great week, I hope you can join me next Friday."

That was the end of my show for this week, and the end of my marriage. It also let my wife know that I knew about her affair.

I'm Terry Dewar. For the last eight years I have presented a rock show on the local community radio station. Every Friday between 8-11pm I was on air. I met Louise at an outdoor event we were supplying the music for, we got along and started dating. We found we had a lot of shared interests, particularly music. Louise liked eighties rock, stuff like early Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. My tastes were slightly broader, I liked a lot of the old classic rock bands and Southern Rock. After a year we married. Most of the other station presenters attended the wedding, some I knew better than others.

One guy I wasn't keen on was Barry Haines. Barry did the weekend brunch show from 9-11am. Barry was one of those guys who looked good, had a nice smile, nice hairstyle and a smart dresser. For some reason I didn't trust the guy. Rumour was Barry had been behind a few divorces in the past. Louise seemed to get along okay with Haines, personally I wasn't happy about it. Whenever Haines was near Louise I kept a close eye on him. It pissed me off that they got along so well.

I had just finished my show. Joe Baker, the station's investigative reporter, asked if we could have a quiet chat. That late at night there were very few people around, so we went to the breakout area. Joe was a draughtsman by trade, his investigative reporter persona was done in his spare time. Joe was good at doing local stories of interest. Right now Joe was working on a story of a local businessman who made it big, the rumours were that it involved dirty money from somewhere.

"Terry, what I am going to tell you is not nice, but you need to know. I drove over to Barry Haines house earlier tonight, I wanted to talk to him about that businessman I am running the story on. I only went to see him as they went to the same school, I was hoping for some early years background information. As I pulled up a cab stopped, a woman got out and bent in the window to talk to the driver. She then walked up to Haines' front door and let herself in with a key. The woman was your wife Louise!"

"What?" I sat there shocked. "You saw Louise let herself into his house?"

"I'm afraid so Terry. I have no idea how long it's been going on, but if she has a key it could be a while. Now you know the station has a strict morals policy? If there is something going on, then Haines is out on his arse."

I was still getting over the shock of what Joe had told me. "Has he done this before Joe?"

"We think so. We just don't have any proof. Several months ago at the town fair, Haines spent hours chatting up a woman while her husband and kids were close by. As I say there is no proof, but the woman and her husband separated a few weeks later. Derek said if Haines was the cause then he would be fired. I'll leave it to you to work it out Terry, but I would recommend you speak to Derek pretty soon." Derek was the station owner, a nice guy who knew his stuff.

Speaking to Derek was the last thing on my mind, right then I wanted to rip Barry Haines head off and shove it up his arse. I told Joe I would talk to Derek when the time was right. That night I feigned feeling ill to avoid sex with Louise. Louise went out shopping on Saturday, I formed a plan and started to get my ducks in a row. The hardest part for me was playing the dumb innocent husband, I could have strangled Louise for what she had done. I had a friend follow Louise for the next two Fridays, he confirmed what Joe had told me. Louise arrived by cab, let herself in and left a few hours later. Every other night of the week she was at home with me, playing the loving wife. A performance that was worthy of an Oscar.

Louise and I had very few shared assets. The house was mine, she could keep her car. We had our own bank accounts so there was nothing to do financially. Finally after three weeks I was ready to drop the hammer. My solicitor managed to get a process server who would work late at night. My friend Gary agreed to help me out.

I was at the station and just about to go on air, Gary texted me that Louise had left the house thirty minutes ago, I replied telling him to go ahead as planned. Using a spare key I gave him, Gary was going to pack all of Louise's shit into boxes. We had arranged for a guy to deliver it to Barry Haines' house. I also gave Gary money to pay the locksmith when he installed new locks. The process server sent me a text when Louise was served.

Later that night the guy with the van told me Louise broke down in tears when she was served, she collapsed when he started unloading the boxes of her stuff on the drive. I usually have my phone on silent, after receiving those messages I turned it off. During the show I asked Derek if we could have a chat after my show tonight, he replied yes and met me in the breakout room.

"I take it by your closing statement Haines and your wife are having an affair?"

"Yeah. I found out a few weeks ago. I had her served tonight as she left Haines house, to make matters worse I had all of her stuff dropped off there as well. I don't know what you intend to do about Haines, but I meant what I said. He had better watch his back!"

"Terry, Barry Haines was fired ten minutes ago. I'm not sure what advice to give you, apart from don't do anything stupid. Haines isn't worth the trouble."

Thanks Derek, I appreciate that. I'm not sure what I am going to do Haines, I wanted to do more than scare him." I laughed.

When I turned my phone back on it pinged like an alarm. There were loads of texts and missed calls from Louise, I sent her one text asking her to leave me alone. Haines sent me a text threatening me.

I replied telling him to watch his back, he never answered that message.

Louise tried to get me to sit and talk to her, I wasn't interested. Nothing she could say would change how I felt. I still loved her, I just couldn't trust her. Louise finally got the hint, she signed the divorce papers. The last I heard she had moved back home with her parents; they were not happy when they found out why we had separated. Her father was disappointed, her mother apologised that they raised a slut.

Barry Haines left town a few days after I outed him and Louise on air. Derek put the word out as to why he was sacked, that screwed his chances of getting another stint on community radio. One Friday evening Haines was attacked as he left a nightclub, from the injuries listed in newspaper reports I knew he wouldn't be chasing women for a while. As I was on air at the time the police left me alone. I think the culprit was another angry husband, which I have no idea.